


The Pillar of Camelot

by ofsevenseas



Category: Merlin (BBC), Prince of Tennis
Genre: Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-10
Updated: 2009-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-06 09:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofsevenseas/pseuds/ofsevenseas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Look, it's a Merlin and Tenipuri crossover. I'm not sure there's anything to summarize.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pillar of Camelot

Arthur reflected that, all in all, his kingdom was not the best place for a falling meteor. He could have been biased, of course, but one generally preferred giant death boulders to land in the ocean and not create a smouldering hole in the Royal Forest.

Who cared what happened to a bunch of codfish?

Morgana was off to calm the masses somewhere in the lower town, with Gwen and his knights, which seemed sort of ridiculous.

It was a stone. From the sky. For all he knew the peasants would take it as a sign to sacrifice their handsome blond prince to the pagan gods to satisfy their ire. (And then Uther would kill them all, but that was besides the point.)

Arthur sighed and mounted up to his horse, his spare set of boots pinching abominably and making him curse Merlin, who had taken his boots to polish the night before and then mysteriously vanished.

Well, not vanished per se, just not here, right at this moment, being maddeningly underfoot and asking too many questions like he always was. And he still had Arthur's favourite boots hostage.

The horse had no qualms about being ridden into almost certain death by smoke, but then it hadn't minded that time with the cockatrice or the griffin so Arthur was beginning to suspect his horse was a bit of an adrenalin junkie and god, Merlin was rubbing off on him if he could still think such inanities while on recon. In a forest.

Which had turned into a small-scale desert, minus the prickly short plants, and a lot more petrified vegetation. Arthur grinned. At least his father wouldn't have half the castle turned upside down for another sorcery hunt.

Taking a spare horse blanket to wrap the extra-terrestrial trophy, Arthur sauntered (a saunter inasmuch as it is possible to do on crunchy bits of burnt wood) to the blackened crater and looked down.

The meteor was not what he had expected at all - it was smaller than his fist, perfectly round, and slightly fuzzy. It was most definitely also not the colour he'd expected, which was a sort of ash-gray mixed in black, but instead a blinding kind of green. The surface looked sort of like that bit of bread he'd found under Merlin's bed the other day. (Well, he'd inferred it was bread, there was nothing vague edible about that piece of food by the time Arthur had seen it.)

Extending a tentative hand over the fuzzy green ball revealed that it had just cooled down from an insanely high temperature (which was, in itself, insane, because in Arthur's experience things tended to spontaneously combust once they started emitting light). But it was okay for his gauntleted hand to hold in any case, so Arthur took the object and gingerly wrapped in his now-overlarge blanket.

Footsteps alerted him to the presence of a (possibly) hostile intruder, so Arthur threw the object on the ground and stood to face whoever it was, sword in hand.

The stranger - ye gods, he was barely clothed - raised the strange implement in his hands (used for cooking, perhaps) in a gesture of placation, and pointed at the bundled at Arthur's feet questioningly.

"I-I demand your name and purpose!"

The brown-haired man looked up, his dark brown eyes inscrutable as he pushed - pushed whatever it was perched on his nose further up.

"Aa. I am sorry for not introducing myself, valiant knight. I am Tezuka Kunimitsu, captain of the Seigaku Tennis Team."

Most of that flew right over Arthur's head, making cutesy cheeping noises, so he ignored them. At least this man was civil, if a little stifled in his speech. Arthur drew himself up and tried his Regal Prince Voice, (which Merlin had christened his Lord Prat Voice, behind his back, or so his manservant thought, har har).

"I see. I am Arthur, Crown Prince of Camelot. I would advise you to leave immediately and seek shelter at the castle, as an object of uncertain nature has just fallen from the sky and it is quite unsafe for a civilian."

Arthur wasn't sure, but his trained eyes picked out something of a twitch around this fellow's mouth. In any case, it was gone as soon as it appeared, and Teddy - did he say Teddy? - had already begun speaking.

"Would that object happen to be a small green globe?"

Speechless, Arthur looked down at the bundled blanket and then back up at Teddy's immobile face.

"In that case, I would much like to have it back, as I suspect the youngest one of my, ah, team was responsible for causing this mess. I formally apologize to you for your trouble."

The breath that Arthur had been holding came out in a great puff at that statement. Someone from Teddy's team? And the youngest at that. He was not generally a coward, but Arthur sincerely hoped he would not have to meet the rest of Teddy's forces in battle.

"I would love to give this to you, but I'm afraid my father expects it to be delivered to him post-haste. Though if you do have some time to spare, I'm sure he will grant you permission to take your object back after he has examined it."

A tiny crinkle appeared between Teddy's eyebrows. "I'm afraid that the portal Inui has opened for me would not last that long. I would leave the ball in your possession, but Fuji" - at Arthur's confused look, Teddy clarified - "another team member, has told me that it would damage the space-time continuum if I were to do so."

Arthur looked away from his direct gaze and scuffed the ground, wincing as his pinky toe was further squashed by his boot. His father was going to throw a fit.

"If you feel that you must have it now, take it. It was never mine to begin with."

Teddy looked at Arthur for a long time, penetratingly, until Arthur squirmed from the pressure of it. Only two people in Camelot could make him squirm, and he was related to one of them. (Though Merlin often came close, on occasion, when he was not being a buffoon with giant ears.)

"Your father expects much from you."

Arthur didn't feel a need to answer what was obviously not intended for him. Teddy sighed.

"You must not focus only on what your father desires, Arthur. It is in you to be a great man, if you would but unlock your own potential."

It was nice that Teddy, a stranger of a chance meeting in the forest, could compliment him this way, but nothing could make him ready for the reality of ruling, Arthur was certain.

"To become the pillar of Camelot that it deserves, you need to remember your love for it."

"I - what?"

"You have people who believe in you, do you not? Trust in their faith in you."

As with everything else in his life, Merlin chose this precise moment to come crashing through the underbush (or what remained of it), cheeks blooming red from running through the forest, crying out Arthur's name as if it were a spell to call Arthur to him.

Teddy turned, and again, that twitch at the corner of his mouth appeared before smoothing away. He spoke gravely to Arthur's manservant in the same tone he used for Arthur. (Which the prince personally thought was unfair, it wasn't as if Merlin would appreciate wisdom when he saw it.)

"Do not be careless, young man."

Merlin's mouth dropped open, the way that made everyone assume his head had an unfortunate meeting with the ground when he was young, and then Teddy vanished into the woods.

"Arthur, what was that?"

Ignoring Merlin as was his wont, Arthur slung an arm around his too-thin shoulders.

"Oi, idiot, we're going home."

Pillar of Camelot. It had a ring to it.


End file.
